Tag Archives | Adverse Possession

People acquire property—and lose property—by adverse possession when certain facts have been present for more than ten years. The facts center on the possessor’s use and occupation of the “true” owner’s property. The use may have been by a prior possessor. I have addressed the elements in a previous post. The purpose of this post […]

The Washington Supreme Court answered an often asked question by clearly stating that alleys dedicated for public use cannot be adversely possessed. The case is Kiely v. Graves and concerns competing claims to a portion of an alley that had been vacated by the city of Port Townsend. William and Sally Chapin Kiely were neighbors […]

I don’t know how many real estate transactions involve a transfer of property by a statutory warranty deed. I suspect it must be close to 90%. How many sellers know that a statutory warranty contains warranties that they are making to the purchaser? How many sellers know that the purchaser might come back to them, […]

Boundary disputes arise in many ways. However, at their core, they all share a common characteristic: a legal boundary line is being ignored. Provided that the boundary line has been ignored for the requisite period of time (usually ten years), the user can acquire title to the other’s property. What they acquire might be “fee […]

The Huntingtons built their house, well and garage on Noel Proctor’s property. Instead of having the property surveyed prior to building, the Huntingtons mistakenly believed that a survey pin marked the corner of their property. It didn’t, it was actually 400 feet from the true boundary, having been placed there by a prior property owner […]

Division One upheld a summary judgment in favor of the owners of undeveloped property in Skagit County against the adverse possession claim of their neighbors. The dispute involved the Plaintiffs’ claim that by mowing of a portion of the Defendants’ undeveloped land for a period of more than ten years, they had acquired the property […]